


Fish In The Sea

by orphan_account



Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: AU, Captivity, Fantasy elements, M/M, Violence, merfolk
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-17
Updated: 2016-11-05
Packaged: 2018-04-04 21:52:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,516
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4154322
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Pierce keeps a collection of interesting and unique creatures. It turns out Steve knows one of those creatures.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. What The Water Gave Me

**Author's Note:**

> Many thanks to a friend who provided the idea for Jack and Brock. The rest of this work is my own.

“Come now, Captain Rogers, surely you can spare a bit of your time to see my aquarium.”

Steve stood in the home of one Alexander Pierce, having stopped by to report on Fury’s current condition in the hospital. He didn’t really want to stay, he hardly knew Pierce. The man was certainly charismatic and convincing, but there had always been something off-putting about him that Steve could not put a name to. 

“Thank you, sir, but i’ve seen plenty of aquariums and-”

“Ah, but you’ve never seen one like this before,” Pierce assured him, “I don’t just keep fish, you see. I keep very specific and unusual creatures, the sort you’ll never see in those boring old public aquariums.“ He didn’t wait for a response, simply turned and started walking, gesturing for Steve to follow.

Reluctant though he was, Steve did follow, mildly curious about just what Pierce actually kept in his aquarium. He was led down into a large room, dark, save for the lighting shining through the glass tanks that covered the walls on either side of them. At first, he saw the fish, small and large, singular and in schools, swimming around like in any usual aquarium.

But then he noticed the other creatures inhabiting the tanks. His eyes widened. _Merfolk._

There weren’t very many of them, but they were all unique and beautiful. Breathtaking, even. Steve had always dreamed of seeing more merfolk in person, imagining what they would each be like. He hoped they would sit still, basking in the sun as Steve sketched their lovely forms onto his drawing pad. But this.. this wasn’t how he wanted to see them.

It was clear the merfolk were not happy, pacing their tanks like caged animals. Some looked bored, others downright depressed. This was no place for merfolk of any kind. They belonged in the vast seas, where they could live and thrive and spend their lives the way they were meant to.

“What do you think, Rogers?” Pierce inquired, smirking as he watched the changes in Steve’s expression, “These particular merfolk are rare breeds. It cost me a fortune just to find someone who sold them. Scarce as they are, it can take years to track down and capture just one.” He stepped toward the tank, admiring his captives. “Beautiful, aren’t they?”

“Yes. They are,” Steve simply replied, staring sadly at the trapped merfolk. What more could he say? How could he hope to change the mind of a man like Pierce, convince him that what he was doing was wrong? There were no laws against this sort of thing. Merfolk were lumped in with animals, but they often had even less rights, due to countless conflicts with humans. Their kind had slowly disappeared over the years, but there was more than one reason as to why that was. 

Pierce turned to Steve again, eying him for a moment, but it was hard to tell what a man like him might be thinking. He seemed vaguely amused. “There’s more than these ones, actually,” he informed the Captain, “My most prized pets are kept further back, tucked safely away. They’re even rarer than the ones here. I guarantee you’ll never see these particular species out in the wild, not anymore.” Then he headed toward a doorway, into another room. Steve wanted to leave, but felt compelled to see just how many of these innocent creatures Pierce was keeping trapped there. He followed along.

“These are my sharks,” Pierce informed as they stepped into a smaller room. The tank surrounded them, connecting overhead and making the room itself seem like one big aquarium alone.

Steve noticed a number of small plaques along the wall under the glass, all bearing various names. But despite the many names, Steve only counted two mersharks. “Where are the others?” he asked in confusion, stepping closer to look at the sharks. They both looked mean as hell, with short dark hair and scars all over their bodies. The larger of the two had a particularly prominent scar on his jaw.

“You see those two right there?” Pierce gestured to the sharks in question, “They’re a nasty pair, those two. Very aggressive, and very territorial. They’re a mated pair, so they get along with each other just fine- but the other sharks? Not so much. They killed them all. Those names you see are actually the names of all the other sharks they killed. Little memorials, if you will. I do miss them, they kept the place much more interesting. Unfortunately, I had the luck to wind up with these two. Now the maximum amount of sharks I can keep in a tank meant for up to ten is just two.”

Steve stared in horror for a moment, shocked by Pierce’s explanation. “Oh… Um, so, what are these sharks’ names?” he finally asked after a long stretch of silence.

“That tiger shark with the scar on his face is called Rollins. The bull shark is called Rumlow,” Pierce answered evenly, “When I got them, they insisted on some other names. They all did. But I prefer the names i’ve chosen for them.”

Steve resisted the urge to snap at that. Not only had he taken their freedom, but he wanted to take their names too? “What were their names when you got them?” Steve didn’t bother to be careful with how he worded the question.

“Rumlow said his name was Brock, and Rollins, even though he’s not much of a talker, said his name was Jack. Boring names, if you ask me.”

Steve looked back at the tank, startling when he found himself face to face with the bull shark. Rumlow- no, Brock- had been further in the back gnawing on an eel before, but now he seemed to have finally noticed the two humans in the room. Brock stared right at him, webbed fingers splayed across the glass and eyes bright with interest. They eyed each other with a shared curiosity.

But it didn’t last very long, because suddenly, the tiger shark was pushing Brock aside and slamming into the glass, making Steve jump back. Rollins- no, Jack- pulled back and glared at him, baring a mouthful of sharp teeth and hitting his fist against the glass in warning.

Pierce chuckled in amusement, “Ah yes, Rollins has always been the more jealous of the two. It’s too bad he seems to want to make a meal out of you, because Rumlow actually seemed quite intrigued by your presence. Well, seeing as Rollins doesn’t like you very much, we should probably take our leave now before he throws a fit. I’ll lead you to the last exhibit- my personal favorite.”

Steve followed Pierce out of the room, noticing out of the corner of his eye the way Jack swam along the length of the tank, watching him closely and practically trying to follow him out of the room. Brock seemed to stay not far behind the other shark, also watching him. It was a little eerie, if he was being honest.

“And here, we have the gem of my little collection,” Pierce announced with evident pride as he flipped a switch to turn the lights in the smaller room on. There were various supplies and equipment for managing large aquariums off to the sides of the room, kept against the walls, but in the middle was something that would have been comical were it not for the miserable captive held inside it: an oversized simple fish bowl, large enough to house one merperson of average size.

Massive shiny pebbles decorated the bottom of the bowl, supporting a single merman lying on his side with his back facing them. But that hair, that tail.. it looked so familiar.. it looked like..

“This is a betta, also known as a Siamese fighting fish. He gets awfully feisty some days, so I usually have to keep a covering over the top of the bowl. This fool has nearly died on multiple occasions jumping out of the bowl and trying to crawl away. But lately, he’s been mostly well-behaved. I’ve even taught him a few tricks,” Pierce explained, leaning forward to knock on the glass, “Winter, wake up. We have a guest. Why don’t you entertain him a bit?”

The betta moved, stretching a bit before swimming upright- revealing he was missing his left arm.

“He lost his arm in a fight with another male betta. There aren’t very many of his kind left in the world, so I try to keep him out of trouble- but sometimes I just can’t resist entering him in a good fight. He always wins, might I add.”

The betta turned and looked right at Steve. Steve’s breath caught in his throat and he visibly paled. He was certain his heart had stopped, because staring right at him, with sad tired eyes, was the merman he had befriended in his youth.

“Bucky?” he couldn’t stop himself from saying, taking slow shaky steps toward the bowl, pressing his hands up against the glass. Bucky just cocked his head questioningly, not seeming to recognize Steve at all.

It’d been so many years. Steve had searched for a long time, trying to find where Bucky had gone to the point that it became an obsession. It took awhile before his friends managed to convince him that if Bucky hadn’t returned, it was likely something had killed him. Steve came home, but he never stopped going out, every time he got the chance, to that spot near the shore where they used to meet. Bucky had disappeared once before, and Steve had found him tangled in a net and close to death. He’d rescued him, cared for him, nursed him back to health and practically lived by the ocean until Bucky had recovered. But this time, years had passed, and with each day that went by, it seemed less and less likely that he would ever see the merbetta again.

“You know him,” Pierce observed, surprised but fascinated by this turn of events.

“When we were kids, we used to meet near the shore around the same time once a week,” Steve explained, but it was to Bucky, not to Pierce, “You saved me from drowning, remember? When I was small and weak and couldn’t swim very well. You taught me how to swim, helped me get stronger. I rescued you from a net once, and a couple months later, you brought me back a dozen oysters trying to find a pearl for me. You never found one, but I didn’t mind. Bucky, you know me. Don’t you remember?”

Bucky just stared blankly at him. “Captain Rogers, i’m afraid your friend here has been through some very excruciating fights. It’s not unlikely that all the trauma he’s sustained has impaired his memory,” Pierce said, with not a shred of sympathy, “But worry not. Winter- or Bucky, as you seem fond of calling him-”

“That’s his name.”

“-will be safe here. In fact, this is probably the safest place he can be. I assure you, he is in good hands here-”

“What? With you? Fighting for your amusement? Living in something no better than a damn bathtub??“ Steve turned to look at Pierce, finding the man was texting something on his cell phone.

“I’m quite sorry, Rogers. I didn’t expect you to react like this. Maybe we can talk more once you’ve calmed down.” A couple of guards, both armed, entered the room. “Why don’t you head on home now?”

It would be so easy to take out those guards, and do the same to Pierce, before hauling Bucky out of that hellish prison and carrying him out of there. But he couldn’t just do that. He wasn’t close enough to the shore where they were then, and he’d need something to hold Bucky in, something that could hold at least a little water for him. He needed a plan.

So it was with great reluctance that Steve cast a final worried glance at Bucky before going along with the guards. He would do something. He would try to seek help from Fury, Natasha, anyone that could assist him in his mission. But even without help, he would still find a way to get Bucky, and eventually all those other merfolk, out of there. He wouldn’t let them remain captive forever.


	2. Never Let Me Go

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Steve won't give up on Bucky.

Steve shouldn’t have been there. He knew that. The last place he belonged was in the arena of an underground mer fighting ring- or, more or less, it was an abandoned warehouse re-purposed to be an arena. But, if his calculations were correct, Bucky would be here, and he needed to see him, needed to reconnect with him and make him remember. 

“You shouldn’t be here,” a voice repeated his thoughts for him, and Steve stared up at the mershark peering over the edge of the tank at him, “If Pierce knows you’re here..” 

“I know,” he replied, watching Brock as the other man eyed him with amusement. 

“What do you hope to gain here anyway?” The question wasn’t meant to be condescending, but spilling from Brock’s lips past sharp teeth, that’s how it sounded. 

“I’m looking for my friend. I need to see him,” Steve admitted, “Do you know him? Bucky- er, Winter?” 

Brock shrugged, “I see him sometimes when they’re switching us out. Watched him try to crawl his way to freedom once. Kid’s got all the personality of a rock.” 

“He wasn’t always like that,” Steve frowned. He watched as Jack swam up to them, glaring at Steve and tugging lightly at Brock’s fin. 

Brock looked down at Jack where he hovered in the water, smiling, before looking back at Steve, “Listen, after our match, they’ll switch us out for your betta. There’ll be a brief intermission then, and that’ll be your best chance to talk to him.” 

Steve nodded, “Thank you.” 

“Don’t mention it,” Brock said with a lopsided toothy grin, before ducking back down under the water. 

Steve’s gaze followed down to the floor. What was he going to do? What was he going to say? It was a source of confusion and conflict for him. How to approach such a situation was almost beyond him. 

X 

Steve stood in the massive crowd, hidden beneath his baseball cap and large glasses. People shouted and cheered, urging the fight going on in the tank they surrounded. It was a two on two match, mersharks versus mersharks. The moment the fight started, things got very ugly. 

The mers were fast, blurring together as they swam and thrashed about. Sharp teeth and claws found flesh easily, and it wasn’t long before a thick cloud of blood sullied the water and made it slightly harder to see what was going on. Steve was horrified by the sight. Was this really what it had come to? People paying to watch beautiful and endangered creatures maim and kill each other? He felt sick to his stomach- especially upon realizing that this was what Bucky was being put through. 

He couldn’t watch anyway, so he averted his gaze. He breathed deeply and waited for the awful display to come to an end. 

X 

Steve had lost a bit of time, having to be especially careful upon sneaking back into the arena this time around. But when he got back in, relief washed over him. Bucky was swimming restlessly around in the tank, looking somehow both bored and nervous at the same time. 

Steve approached the glass slowly, and tapped gently on its surface. Bucky stopped, turned, and looked at the human with a certain curiosity, cocking his head slightly. He approached, still under the water, and observed Steve inquisitively, webbed fingers pressing against the glass. 

“Buck, can you hear me?” Steve asked softly, “It’s me. It’s Steve. Don’t you remember me at all?” 

Bucky stared blankly, not seeming to register what the other man was saying. 

Steve sighed at first, pausing, then reached up to press his hands to the glass where Bucky’s were, matching him. They gazed at each other for what like eternity, and yet too brief simultaneously. 

When Steve pulled away, it was to gesture upwards, urging Bucky to surface. 

After a moment more of confused staring, the merbetta finally did as he was requested, pulling his upper body out of the water to hold onto to the edge of the tank and look down at Steve. 

“Who are you?” Bucky asked evenly, “Why do I feel like I know you, like I’ve seen you somewhere a long time ago?” 

“You do know me,” Steve replied, looking up at his old friend, “We met when we were young. You saved my life. Now, I’d.. I’d like to return the favor.” 

“You want to save me..?” Bucky asked, furrowing his brow, “Can you really do that? Can you get me out of here? I don’t want to be here anymore. I want to go home..” 

“I’ll do my best, but I need to get a plan together first,” Steve answered, “I promise you though, I _will_ get you out of here. You have my word on that.” 

Bucky was silent for a moment, before opening his mouth to speak again, “Do you-?” 

Someone came in through the double doors, and Bucky immediately turned to dive back under the water and away from the wall of the tank. Steve turned, to see one man leading others in. His stomach churned as he realized Bucky’s match would be next. He knew he needed to find a way to save Bucky, and soon. Who knew how much more torment his childhood friend could take..


	3. The Arms Of The Ocean Delivered Me

Steve had one goal in mind: save Bucky, and the rest of the merfolk Pierce had in captivity. The mission wasn’t easy, but in the end, he knew it would be worth it. He got help from his friends- Natasha, Sam, Fury. It was something that wracked his nerves, made his heart pound in his chest. 

One by one, the merfolk were removed from their tanks, and put in a temporary one in the back of a semi-truck. They started at the front of the terrible aquarium, and worked their way back. 

When at last they reached Bucky, Steve was the one to pull him from the bowl and carry him out. 

“You came back..” Bucky said as he looked up at Steve in amazement. 

Steve just smiled and hurried to get Bucky in the truck’s tank. 

X 

It was a victory, slowly helping the merfolk back into the ocean. Freed and ecstatic, they would leap from human arms right into the water and swim away quickly. Some of them even leapt out of the water occasionally in joy, a sight more beautiful than anything Steve could have ever dreamed of. 

When Brock and Jack were returned to the sea, they stayed together as expected. Brock grinned wide and waved to Steve, while Jack nodded at him in acknowledgment. Then they were gone, diving down deep and disappearing beneath the surface. 

And when at last it was Bucky’s turn to go home, Steve was the one to carry him in. He moved further and further out until the water reached his shoulders, and he at last let Bucky go, reluctantly. 

Bucky remained there before him, looking at him with emotions Steve could not name. 

“I remember you..” he spoke softly, “I remember you..” 

Steve smiled, and Bucky continued, “Will I ever see you again?” 

“I want that so badly,” Steve replied, “But it’s too dangerous for you to stay close to the shore. I can’t keep you safe forever. You need to get as far away from here as you can.” 

Bucky frowned, “But I remember you..” 

“I know, Buck,” Steve sighed, “But this is what’s best for you.” 

Then, to Steve’s surprise, Bucky moved in and wrapped his remaining arm around Steve, burying his face in a shoulder that was now familiar to him. 

“I remember you now,” Bucky whispered, “And I’ll never forget you again..” 

Steve returned the embrace with arms wrapped around his old friend snugly. He couldn’t help the tears that stung his eyes. 

“I’ll never forget you either,” Steve replied softly, “But now, it’s time for you to go home.” 

Bucky sniffled, and nuzzled at Steve, holding him for a moment longer. When he pulled away, his expression was a mixture of joy and sorrow. 

“Thank you,” Bucky said then, “Steve..” 

Then at last, the merman dove under the surface and swam away swiftly. Steve stood there in the water, staring at the space where Bucky had once been. 

To his surprise, Bucky resurfaced, distant now, and looked back at Steve. 

Steve waved to him, and Bucky simply smiled, their eyes meeting one last time. 

Then Bucky finally left, and Steve was left alone in the ocean water that surrounded him. 

His heart ached. But now he had closure, and the hope that Bucky would be okay. 

The ocean would forever be a bittersweet reminder to him. 

But he decided he was okay with that.

**Author's Note:**

> Someone pointed out to me that, as a betta, Bucky would be unable to live in the sea because betta fish are freshwater fish. So let's just take the easy route here and say that all merfolk are euryhaline organisms.  
> 


End file.
